Gaming machines which provide players awards in primary or base games are well known. Gaming machines generally require the player to place or make a wager to activate the primary or base game. In many of these gaming machines, the award is based on the player obtaining a winning symbol or symbol combination and on the amount of the wager (e.g., the higher the wager, the higher the award). Symbols or symbol combinations which are less likely to occur usually provide higher awards.
In such known gaming machines, the amount of the wager made on the base game by the player may vary. For instance, the gaming machine may enable the player to wager a minimum number of credits, such as one credit (e.g., one penny, nickel, dime, quarter or dollar) up to a maximum number of credits, such as five credits. This wager may be made by the player a single time or multiple times in a single play of the primary game. For instance, a slot game may have one or more paylines and the slot game may enable the player to make a wager on each payline in a single play of the primary game. Thus, it is known that a gaming machine, such as a slot game, may enable players to make wagers of substantially different amounts on each play of the primary or base game ranging, for example, from 1 credit up to 125 credits (e.g., 5 credits on each of 25 separate paylines). This is also true for other wagering games, such as video draw poker, where players can wager one or more credits on each hand and where multiple hands can be played simultaneously. Accordingly, it should be appreciated that different players play at substantially different wagering amounts or levels and at substantially different rates of play.
Secondary or bonus games are also known in gaming machines. The secondary or bonus games usually provide an additional award to the player. Secondary or bonus games usually do not require an additional wager by the player to be activated. Secondary or bonus games are generally activated or triggered upon an occurrence of a designated triggering symbol or triggering symbol combination in the primary or base game. For instance, a bonus symbol occurring on the payline on the third reel of a three reel slot machine may trigger the secondary bonus game. Part of the enjoyment and excitement of playing certain gaming machines is the occurrence or triggering of the secondary or bonus game (even before the player knows how much the bonus award will be). In other words, obtaining a bonus event and a bonus award in the bonus event is part of the enjoyment and excitement for players.
Player tracking systems are also known. Player tracking systems enable gaming establishments to recognize the value of customer loyalty through identifying frequent customers and rewarding them for their patronage. The cumulative history of a particular player's gaming activity, which is included in a player profile, enables gaming establishments to target individual players with direct marketing promotions or customized compensation plans. In existing player tracking systems, a player is issued a player identification card which has an encoded player identification number that uniquely identifies the player. Player tracking on gaming devices such as slot machines, is typically accomplished with a card reader mounted to the gaming device. When the player first sits down at a gaming device, the player inserts the card into the card reader. The card reader reads the player identification number off the player tracking card and communicates information through a network to a central computer regarding the player's subsequent gaming activity. Based on this communicated information or data, the gaming establishment classifies each player and provides one or more of such players certain benefits based on these classifications.
One known player tracking system provides an award provided to a designated player if that player's player tracking card is inserted into a gaming device. The award is provided at a randomly determined time and/or a randomly determined amount. The designated player is randomly chosen from all of the carded players (i.e., those players who have inserted their player tracking cards into a gaming device). Although rewarding carded players encourages participation in such a player tracking system, this also may discourage certain players because a player becomes ineligible for the benefit once the player removes their player tracking card from the gaming machine.
Progressive awards associated with gaming machines are also known. In one form, a progressive award is an award amount which includes an initial amount funded by a casino and an additional amount funded through a portion of each wager made on the progressive gaming machine. For example, 0.1% of each wager placed on the primary game of the gaming machine associated with the progressive award may be allocated to the progressive award or progressive award fund or pool. The progressive award grows in value as more players play the gaming machines and more portions of these players' wagers are allocated to the progressive award. When a player obtains a winning symbol or symbol combination associated with the progressive award, the accumulated progressive award is provided to the player. After the progressive award is provided to the player, the amount of the next progressive award is reset to the initial value and a portion of each subsequent wager on a gaming machine associated with a progressive award is allocated to the next progressive award.
A progressive award may be associated with or otherwise dedicated to a single or stand-alone gaming machine. Alternatively, a progressive award may be associated with or otherwise dedicated to multiple gaming machines which each contribute a portion of wagers placed at such gaming machine(s) to the progressive award. The multiple gaming machines may be in the same bank of gaming machines, in the same casino or gaming establishment (usually through a local area network (“LAN”)) or in two or more different casinos or gaming establishments (usually through a wide area network (“WAN”)). Such progressive awards are played for by one or more gaming devices in the same gaming establishment sometimes called local area progressives (“LAP”) and such progressive awards played for by a plurality of gaming devices at a plurality of different gaming establishments are sometimes called wide area progressives (“WAP”).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,608 B1 entitled “Progressive Wagering System” discloses a linked progressive wagering system specifying a boundary criteria, such as a maximum value or an expiration date and time, for a progressive award prize. If a gaming device has not randomly generated a prize award event when the specified boundary criteria is met, a progressive award prize is forced by the system upon one or more randomly selected participating players.
While such progressive awards are popular amongst players, a number of issues exist with these known progressive award systems. First, only players currently playing gaming devices in the progressive award gaming system are eligible to win the progressive award. Typically, in such systems, the player who places the wager that caused the system to meet the specified criteria (such as time or amount of coin-in) is awarded the progressive award. Thus, if a player stops playing for the progressive award, the player sacrifices their opportunity to win the progressive award and the progressive award may be provided to another player. This may discourage certain players from playing a gaming device if they have a limited amount of time to play.
Additionally, if a player wagers large amounts for a long period of time at a gaming device in a progressive award system, that player contributes to or funds a relatively large portion of the progressive award pool. Certain players may be hesitant to wager such large amounts for a long period of time when those players lose their chance to win the progressive award upon walking away from the gaming device. That is, certain players may be reluctant to contribute or invest large amounts of wagers and time try to win a progressive award that the players have no chance of winning if the players leave the gaming device.
In one instance, certain players leave the gaming devices after realizing that the progressive award has been provided to another player. Such players may walk away from the gaming devices feeling discouraged. Such discouragement can lead to certain players walking away with jackpot fatigue. By walking away, even if the player has spent long periods of time playing for the progressive award, the player sacrifices or forfeits any opportunity to win the progressive award. This may lead to certain players feeling pessimistic about their chances to win the progressive award.
Other players may believe that a significant amount of time and money are required to win the progressive award. This may discourage certain players from playing a gaming device, especially if those players have a limited amount of money to play with or a limited amount of time to play.
There is a continuing need to provide new and different gaming machines and gaming systems as well as new and different ways to provide awards to players including progressive or other bonus awards.